EDS takes aim at Ministry of Defence admin system

EDS today signed a deal with the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) to install a pay and staff administration system which it claimed will deliver £600m of savings over 10 years.

Under the terms of the agreement the IT services firm will roll out a joint personnel administration (JPA) system for the Armed Forces Personnel Administration Agency (AFPAA) as part of the MoD's Defence Change Programme.

The JPA implementation - which will be deployed across the Royal Air Force, Royal Navy and Army in turn between 2006 and 2007 - is designed to modernise and harmonise what are currently multiple standalone systems.

The project is consistent with the terms of the service delivery contract awarded to EDS in November 1997 and which runs to November 2009.

Lieutenant general Anthony Palmer, deputy chief of defence staff, said: "Today we are taking a major step towards modernising the way in which we deliver pay and personnel services to the armed forces."

Graham Lay, managing director of EDS Defence, said the relationship between AFPAA and EDS on the JPA system marks a turning point in the way suppliers and government work together.

"EDS will significantly improve the ongoing service delivery cost within the new service structure, and has guaranteed this cost saving in the agreement signed today," he said.

"In almost every respect, this is a radical departure from the traditional supplier-customer relationship. In terms of teaming, financial gain share arrangements and delivering an agile government model this partnership sets a benchmark for the future."